Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Boston with a Toddler {Day 1 of 3}

**This was our first time traveling with a two year old toddler, so I'll detail our itinerary by day for people who want recommendations of what to see and where to eat in Boston.**

A few weekends ago we took a short trip to Boston for my golden birthday.

Why Boston? We’ve never been. It wasn’t a long flight {for a 2 year old}. We only paid $75 in points for three round trip seats on Southwest. We took advantage of hotel deals, paying ~$170/night at the Hilton Boston Financial District. The city is small, walkable (we didn’t have to bring a car seat) and we could do everything we wanted {minus Fenway and Harvard} in three days.

It was Mia’s first time on an airplane! After going through the metal detector numerous times, not knowing what was setting it off…Doug realized it was these adorable things! Whoops!

From Boston Logan International Airport, it was a short walk to the {free} shuttle bus which took us on a short ride to the train station.After just two stops on the subway from the Airport to the Aquarium and a five minute walk to the hotel, we were ready to get some lunch near Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

We ate at Durgin-Park, based on this recommendation, wanting our first taste of New England Food. Blech, I do not recommend this restaurant. We had the Baked Boston schrod, fish and chips, mac and cheese and baked beans – none of which were more than “ok”. I've had better fish and chips in Chicago.

After our disappointing lunch, we made our way from Quincy Market through the bottom half of the Freedom Trail. {Mia's literally on the red brick Freedom Trail.}

We're not big history buffs nor do I enjoy taking pictures of buildings, so it didn't take long to move along the trail.

{Old State House/Site of the Boston Massacre}

{Some pretty important people buried at the Granary Burial Ground, including signers of the Declaration of Independence.}

The Freedom Trail goes through Boston Common, leading you to the the State House.

Mia’s favorite part of the day {probably because she actually got to get out of her stroller} was hanging out at the playground near the {empty} Frog Pond. As you can tell by my fat giiiiirlll in a litttttle cooooat, it was cloudy and in the 40s making it pretty cold when you're walking around all day. Layer up!

After snacks in the park, we walked back to the hotel while Mia napped before dinner. This $25 umbrella stroller from Babies R Us {with the pouch} was easy to carry when folded and is clearly comfortable to sit in for hours.

Doug’s Bostonian co-worker told us that Legal Sea Foods has the best clam chowder, so that’s where we went for our first dinner. On a Thursday night at 7pm with no reservations, we had to wait 30 minutes for two + a high chair. It went by fast enough with drinks from the bar and aquariums for Mia to look at. The restaurant was nice, but not too nice where I felt odd bringing a child - perfect!

Despite being a chain, dinner was deeelicious. We had the lobster bisque, clam chowder, salmon, Legal’s signature crab cakes with grilled shrimp and scallops and a side of rice pilaf and jalapeno cheddar polenta. The bisque was good {unlike Michael Jordan’s}, chowder was nice and creamy, salmon was fresh and not fishy tasting {I normally do not like fish}, shrimp was seasoned and grilled beautifully {best I can ever remember}, scallops were good but could’ve been bigger and the polenta wasn’t tasty so I’d pass on that. Mia happily gobbled up dinner rolls, oyster crackers, corn, fish shaped ravioli and grapes. An added bonus was that we ordered a cup of milk to go for Mia’s bedtime routine.

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About {Mindy} aka

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